West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1887-11-17
PEACE ON EARTH.
REV. TALMAGE'S SUNDAY SERMON,
An Exposition OF the Advantages OF
Peace over Discord.

r'se" tue UoI"Ihy stoIS sang toyetHeFT-
Job xxxviii., u, Z.
We have all seen the ceremony at the lay
Ing OF the cornerstone of church. asylum or
Masonic temple Into the hollow of the
stone were placed scrolls OF history and inn
prrtant documents to be suggestive IL one or
two hundred years after the building should
be destroyed by fro or torn down. We re-
memember the silver trowel or iron hammer
that smote the square piece of granite into
sanctity. We remember some venerable man
who presided, welding the trowel or ham
mer. We remember also the music as tho
choir stood on the scattered stones and
timber OF the building about to loo con-
structed. The leaves of the notebooks fiut-
tered In the wind and were turned over with
great rustling, and we remember how the
bass, baritone, tenor, contralto and soprano
voices commingled. They had for many DAYS
boon rehearsing the special programme that
It might be worthy of the cornerstone laying
In my text the poet OF Uz calls us to a
grander ceremony-the laying of the founda-
ton OF this great temple of world. The
corner stone was block of light, and the
trowel was OF celestial crystal All about
and on the embankments OF cloud stood the
angelic choristers, unrolling their librettos
OF overture, and other worlds clapped shin
ing cymbals while the ceremony went on,
and God, tho architect, by stroke of light
after stroke of light, dedicated this great
cathedral OF world. with mountains for
pillars, and sky for frescoed ceiling, and
towering fields for floors, and sunrise and
midnight aurora for upholstery Who laid
the corner stone thereof, when tine morning
stars sang together"
The fact - that the whole universe WINS N
complete cadence, an unbroken ithyramb a
musical portfolio. The great sheet of inn
mensity had been spread out, and written on
II were the stars, the smaller of them minims,
the larger OF them sustained notes. The
meteors marked the staccato passages the
whole heavens a gamut, with all sounds into
nations and modulations, the space between
the worlds a musical interval, trembling of
stellar light a .quaver, the thunder bass
clef, the wind among trees n treble cleft
That is the way God made al things, a per-
feet harmony.
But one day harp string snapped in the
great orchestra One day voice sounded
terrific, grated upon the glorious antiphony.
IL was sin that made the dissonance, and that
harsh discord has been sounding through the
centuries. All the work OF Christians, and
philanthropists, and reformers of all ages, is
70 stop that discord and get all things back
into the perfect harmony which was heard at
The laying OF tho cornerstone when the
morning stars sang together. Before get
through, IL am divinely helped, | will make
it plain that sin is discord and righteousness
is harmony.
That things in general are out OF tune is as
PLAIN as TO a musicians ear Is the unhappy
clash OF clarionet and bassoon in an orches-
trial rendering.
The worlds health out of tune: Weak Inno
and the atmosphere in collision, disordered
eye and MONDAY light in quarrel rheumatic
Imb and damp weather in struggle, neural
gas, and pneumonias, and consumptions,
and epilepsies in focks swoop upon neighbor-
hoods and cities. Where you find one person
with sound throat, and keen eyesight, and
alert ear, and easy respiration, and regular
pulsation, and supple limb, and prime diges-
sion, and steady nerves, you find a hundred
who have TO be very careful becaus this, or
that, or the other physical function is dsor-
dered
The human intellect out of tune: The
Judgment wrongly swerved, or the memory
leaky, or the will weak, or the temper in
fammable, and the Unbalanced mind excep-
tenal. Domestic life out of tune: Not only
here and there a conjugal outbreak OF incon1-
pStibility OF temper through the divorce
courts, or a fila outbreak about n fathers
will through the Surrogate's Court, or n case
OF wife beating or husband poisoning through
the criminal courts, but thousands OF fam
1hes with June outside and January within
Society out OF tune: Labor and capital:
their hands on each others throats Spirit of
caste keeping those down in the social scale
in struggle TO get up, and putting those
who are up in anxiety lest they have to come
down, No wonder the old panosorte of So
cfety is all out OF tune, when hypocrisy and
lying, and subterfuge, and double dealing,
and sycophancy, and charlatanisn, and re-
Venge have for 5000 years being banging
away at the keys and stamping the pedals.
On al SIDES there is a perpetual shipwreck
oil barmonies. Nations in discord Without
realizing it, so wrong is the feeling of nation
Tor nation that the symbols chosen are fierce
and destructive. In this country, where our
skies are full g robins and doves and morn
ing larks, we have for our national symbol fhe
fierce and filthy eagle. as immoral a biri as
can be found in all the ornithologicaI cata-
logues In Great Britain, where they have
lambs and fallow deer, their symbol is the
merciless lion In Russia, where from he
tWRon fFOTQrl md
all kindly beasts dwell, they choose the growl-
ing bear; and in the worlds heraldry a favor
lite figure is the dragon, which is a winged
SERPENT ferocious and dreadful. And so fond
IS the world OF contention that we climb ONT
through the heavens and baptze one of the
other planets with the spirit of battle and
call IL Mars, after the god OF war and we e-ive
70 the eighth sign of the zodiac the name
OF the scorpion, a creature which is chiefly
celebrated for Its deadly sting. But, after
ell, these symbols are expressive of tic
way nation feels toward nation Discord
wide as the continent and bridging the seaz
suppose you have noticed how warmly in
love dry goods stores are with other dry
goods stores, and how highly grocerymen
think OF the sugars of the grocerymen on the
same block And in what eulogistic way
eliopathic and homeopathic doctors sneak ~
each other, and how ministers will sonetines
put ministers on that beautiful cooking in.
struInent which the English call n sDif an
iron roller with spikes on il, and turned bv a
crank before a hot fire, and then n the min
istcr being roasted cries out against H. the
men who are turning him saw; "Husb
brotherl we are turning this spit for the
glory OF God and the good of your soul. and
you must be quiet while we close the service
with: ''' '''o
"Blest DO the ties that binds
Our hearts In Christian love-
The earth Is diametered and circurnfer.
enced with discord, and tho music that was
rendered at the laying Of the worlds corner
stone, when the morning stars sanZ together
Is Dot heard now: and though here and there
from this and that part Of society. and from
this and that part Of the earth there come.
up n thrilling solo Of love, or a yvarblo ~
worship, or a sweet duet Of patience. tbev
are drowned out by discord that shakes
Paul says: "Tho whole creation sroanett, ~
and while the nightingale and the vol
lark, and the canary. and the pIover soyoe.
times sing 50 sweetly that their notes have
been written out in musical notation. AMI IL
- found that the cuckoo sings in the kew Of
ID, and that the cormorant Is a baHso In tbe
winged choir, yet sportsman's gun and the
nutumnal blast often leave them ruffied and
bleeding, OF dead in meadow or forest. Paul
was right Tor the groan in nature browns
out the prima dOnnas Of the sky.
Iartini, tho great musical coDpoSer
dreamed one night that he made a confrsct
with Satan, the latter 70 be ever In the corn
peers service. But one night be handed 10
Satan violin, on which Diabolus pIaved
such sweet music that the composer was
AWAKENED By the emotion and tried 70 rer,ro-
duce The sounds, and thcrefrom was write,
I!artnis most famous piece, entitled ths